Soldiers Battered At Lake In 1837

LIFE IN OSCEOLA - Osceola's HISTORY

The Battle Of Okeechobee Was A Brutal Chapter In The State's History.

January 11, 2004|By Jim Robison, Sentinel Staff Writer

In early January 1838, U.S. Army Lt. Robert Buchanan was recovering from wounds received while serving under future President Zachary Taylor at one of the major conflicts during the Second Seminole War: the Battle of Okeechobee on the north side of Lake Okeechobee.

Buchanan kept a diary of his days in Florida during the Second Seminole War. Excerpts from the collection of Park DeVane, who helped his brother George Albert DeVane with research for the 1978 book, DeVane's Early Florida History, were published by Harper's New Monthly Magazine in March 1884.

The excerpts cover Buchanan's entries from the day he arrived at Fort Brooke on Tampa Bay in late November 1837, his journey into the interior of the Kissimmee River Valley south to Lake Okeechobee and his return to Fort Brooke in early January 1838.

His diary entry for Christmas Eve 1837, notes that earlier that day soldiers had passed through a large cypress hammock. "They [Seminoles] did not attack as we expected."

At sunset, however, a patrol captured two Seminoles, who told Buchanan that other Seminoles were waiting not far away.

Buchanan was among the more than 800 officers and soldiers marching with Taylor toward a swamp on the north side of Okeechobee where he anticipated finding Arpeika, known to the military as Sam Jones.

Historians have used several spellings but all agree that Arpeika was a major influence among the Seminoles.

Billy L. Cypress writes in Perspectives on Arbiaka (Sam Jones), "There were a number of leaders like Osceola who were better known by the Europeans, but Arbiaka played just as great a role in keeping the Seminole people together and surviving through war times to peace times.''

"Jones," writes Patsy West, a historian for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, "was a powerful religious leader and his career . . . far eclipsed Osceola."

She adds, "There would be no Seminoles and Miccosukees left in Florida were it not for the strength and determination of this one individual."

That night, Buchanan added this to his diary: " . . . if accounts be true, we shall have some warm work tomorrow. Could we settle this business at one blow, I should feel satisfied, but it cannot be, and we are likely to get nothing but hard work for our pains."

Again on Christmas Day, Buchanan expected an attack while soldiers crossed a creek. Instead, he heard patrol reports that some 200 Seminole warriors were ahead at a large hammock along Lake Okeechobee. That night, Taylor and his officers planned their movements once the battle began.

Despite the Army's planning, the Seminole's first fire drew heavy losses and they withdrew, then reformed and attacked again in greater numbers.

That night, Buchanan noted, "The enemy was posted in the strongest position I have ever seen in Florida."

The Army had faced a sawgrass swamp with mud so deep that soldiers sank to their knees. Trudging through the muck the soldiers "tired out" before they could reach the higher ground in the hammock. The Seminoles posted themselves atop and behind trees and cleared away large areas of dry grass nearby, preventing the soldiers from using the grass as cover.

"From this position, they poured so deadly a fire . . . that most of the officers and men were soon killed and wounded and the companies on the right were forced to give way."

The Army regrouped for another attacked, this time overwhelming the Seminoles.

At one point, however, the Seminoles fooled Buchanan and soldiers with him. Fighting with the Army were members of other tribes, including some from Delaware.

During one charge through the woods, one of Buchanan's soldiers called out to Seminoles, asking if they were the Delawares. When the Seminoles said "yes," Buchanan and his soldiers lowered their weapons and the Seminoles disappeared into the woods, firing as they ran and killing and wounding several along Buckanan's unit.

The Army claimed a victory that day, but many of the Seminoles, including Arpeika, had disappeared into the swamps to fight another day. The Seminoles killed 27 officers and soldiers and wounded another 112. Eleven Seminoles died, and 14 were wounded.

Buchanan's diary records the names of the officers killed and wounded. He also noted that the battle had deeply affected those who survived.

"In fact the men were so much jaded that it was with the utmost difficulty they could bring out the bodies of the dead," he wrote. .

In the days following the battle, Buchanan wrote home to his parents, telling them he was safe.

Taylor went on to expand his military record in the Mexican War, then won election as the Whig Party's candidate for president in 1848. Cholera, though, claimed Taylor's life just 16 months into his term.

Arpeika never surrendered, refusing the Army's offers of money and evading those who would turn in for a bounty. He died in Florida at age 111.

A copy of the old Harper's magazine excerpts from Buchanan's diary has been donated to the Osceola County Historical Society by local historian Earl Evans.